


The End?

by lovelornity



Category: Elementary (TV), Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV), Sherlock Holmes (Downey films), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: AU, Canon, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-30 17:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20100637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelornity/pseuds/lovelornity
Summary: It doesn’t always happen like this.A look at the fallout from Reichenbach across the Holmes multiverse.Edited slightly in light of theElementaryfinale.





	The End?

_The End? _

A simple question mark, and his whole world turns back around. A flicker of light in the darkness, a sliver of hope where there was none. No reunion, not yet. Just the simple reassurance of life, of friendship.

But it doesn’t always happen like this.

Many years into the future, another man of extraordinary mental acumen will theorize that there exists infinite universes alongside our own, filled with versions of ourselves following any number of paths, reaching any number of outcomes. Anything can happen, and it likely has in some parallel or not-so-parallel universe.

In one universe, Holmes survives his confrontation, and spends years hidden under the guise of death, revealing himself to Watson only out of necessity, mindless of the anguish wrought by his so-called demise. 

In another, Watson never leaves Holmes’ side, and they defeat Moriarty together on a mountainside in Switzerland. 

In one, Holmes meets his end and never does return, and Watson’s life is always a little empty, unfulfilled. 

There is a Holmes whose elegance masks a quiet darkness hidden within. Who rather expects loneliness, but craves Watson’s companionship. Theirs is a fragile reunion, their partnership cautiously mended. 

There is a version of them in a modern world whose influence has made Holmes hard and bitter and Watson high-strung and short-tempered. But even then, they are together. Even then, when Holmes falls, he eventually finds his way back to Watson.

And there is a universe where the detective and his companion are not even in England at all but rather, they meet under very different circumstances in America. But meet they do, and as always, they are both at their best at one another’s side, and any exile is spent together. When he falls, it is with her help, and their plan works like the well-oiled machine they are. Their story closes like it should: together, side by side.

There are versions of this story that end happier, but not by much. For this Holmes does not keep his Watson waiting. This Holmes does not make him suffer (for too long) in the anguish of witnessing his final act—his unselfish, world-saving plunge into the Reichenbach Falls. No, this Holmes, _his_ Holmes, sends him a sign. Gives him a reason to hope. His Holmes trusts him. His Holmes needs him. His Holmes is waiting.

The end of one story. The beginning of another.

**Author's Note:**

> This has sat sad and unfinished on my hard drive since August 2016, so I figured "what the hell?"
> 
> Edited slightly in light of the _Elementary_ finale.


End file.
